Tottenham - Swansea City Preview

In 15 previous league encounters, the north London club have never suffered defeat against the south Wales side, though both teams are buoyed by five-goal wins in the Europa League

The Welsh side will head into the game on the back of a 5-1 win in the Europa League against Petrolul Ploiesti on Thursday - a result that Laudrup described as "excellent".

A late consolation goal from Gheorghe Grozav may have taken the shine off for Swansea, but despite being forced back into action with a relatively short turnaround, Laudrup believes that his side will now enter the White Hart Lane clash full of optimism.

"I’m not complaining about the fixtures," he said. "You have to play everyone and it will be difficult - but we are confident going into the game.

"They had a very good squad last season, and they have bought some good players this summer.

"It may be a different Spurs to the one we played last year, but it will still be tough."

While Swansea fell 4-1 to Manchester United on the opening weekend, Tottenham were 1-0 winners against Crystal Palace.

That match saw Paulinho, Nacer Chadli, Roberto Soldado and Etienne Capoue all make their competitive debuts for the club, although Tottenham were without Gareth Bale as speculation continues over a potential world record move to Real Madrid.

And while he has had to cope without last season's Player and Young Player of the Year Bale so far this season, boss Andre Villas-Boas is pleased with his dealings in the window so far.

"I don't think the team will be distracted by the transfers," he explained. "What we've done so far has been great activity in the transfer window, we managed to bring in almost all the players that we want and will continue to work to strengthen the squad.

"The players look very determined to achieve our objectives this season because of last season's tally of points and not being able to achieve it [qualifying for the Champions League].

"We will continue to be focused on our objectives, so we transfer back to the Premier League against Swansea which is extremely important."

Tottenham will also head into the clash bouyed by their own Europa League exploits after Danny Rose, Paulinho, Andros Townsend and a Soldado double gave them a 5-0 win over Dinamo Tbilisi.

They took three points in both fixtures against Swansea last season, winning 1-0 at White Hart Lane in December before triumphing in the return fixture 2-1 in March.

Bale (foot) will not feature against last season's League Cup winners while Lewis Holtby (hip) is not fully fit, though scored on his return to action for the Under-21 side.

Aaron Lennon (foot) and Jermain Defoe (hamstring) could feature after not playing in Tbilisi.

Nathan Dyer's hamstring injury could keep him out of the game, with the Swansea winger having missed the Europa League tie on Thursday.

However, Jonathan de Guzman may make his return after suffering concussion while playing for the Netherlands.